


Love Devotee (Saiouma)

by ySoda (yrxole)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Relationships, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Dangan Ronpa Spoilers, Eventual Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi, Explicit Language, Fluff and Angst, Hope's Peak Academy, I Tried, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I swear it'll have a happy ending I just like being dramatic, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied Relationships, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Harukawa Maki/Momota Kaito, Not Beta Read, Oneshot, Romantic Soulmates, Sad Saihara Shuichi, Saihara Shuichi-centric, Shipping, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Warning: Enoshima Junko, oumasai, saiouma, we write ouma with the u it's ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24309322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yrxole/pseuds/ySoda
Summary: Although soulmates were a rarity, they surely existed.Not all humans were of the same mind as the love devotees were about these supposed ‘soulmates’.
Relationships: Amami Rantaro & Oma Kokichi, Momota Kaito & Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 20
Kudos: 257
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	Love Devotee (Saiouma)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:
> 
> Here I am again with a shuichi x kokichi thing because they are my comfort ship shhh I actually think this one isn't too bad  
> I'm lazy alright I don't reread my stuff sorry for grammar mistakes and stuff.
> 
> warning: some gore, sadness, usage of bad words ( >:( ) and yeah that's pretty much it
> 
> -I write ouma with the 'u'  
> -it may be a little ooc sometimes so sorry for that   
> -shuichi saihara. need I say more 
> 
> Constructive critisism is welcome, but please don't be too harsh on me :)

_ Although soulmates were a rarity, they surely existed.   
_ _   
_ _ Most people found that the thought of having a soulmate whose fate you were intertwined with for however long you would walk the earth was something beautiful. Soulmates were glamorized and seen as a hopeful sign all over the world, bringing happiness and a feeling of union to the people that lived around the globe. It was something that was till now not very greatly researched how it was possible and how it actually affected people, but most were sure that a soulmark was a sign of a life of good, no matter the circumstances; they were the angels favourites, after all. Humans had a hand of seeing the bigger powers they couldn’t fully understand as something magnificent that no one should be able to take from them. The people felt entitled to their soulmates and soulmarks, although it had before never been in a conflicting way. Like taking care of a beautiful garden the soulmark-carriers were treated well and delicately, as if they too were of a higher importance to the world and should be protected. Yes, a lot loved the idea and principle of a soulmate, one that was assigned to you and would love you conditionless in any life you spent.   
_ _   
_ _ However, like almost anything, not all humans were of the same mind as the love devotees were about these supposed ‘soulmates’.  _

_ Some were actually quite afraid of the thought that something so significant as love was decided on by fate to some, when they had no say in the matter anymore. A power they could not understand bound two souls together for eternity, and it scared them to think there was nothing that could be done about this. The higher powers were something ungraspable and to them not an innocent helping hand, but a dangerous way to walk into the trap of a monster that no one could’ve seen coming when their head was too far up in the clouds to realise that the whole situation was fishy. People that didn’t want their fates to be set, but wanted a free choice and to live a life they would enjoy by themselves weren’t that keen on the idea of soulmates either. That was how and why a young woman that had secretly studied far more into the soulmate question than anyone could imagine had actually come up with a cure, although most believed it to be more of a curse than anything.  _

The boy blinked as he watched a storm approach, something that could have indicated a wrong future full of chaos but to him indicated only that a big change was coming, and a big change was something he was willing to risk his future for. 

He was now right outside of the borders of his well-known Towa City, and now he could understand what the people meant when they called it the only living town in a land of death. Lights that came from well lit streets by lanterns that painted a great picture in contrast to the night sky here weren’t able to reach as well, making the atmosphere seem a little gloomy and somewhat threatening. He had only stepped so far out of the city and already could he feel the change, something he had never actually tried to feel before. Of course he heard the east side of the outside of town had been the worst of all, but it wasn’t like he had actually been that prepared for what was about to come. 

‘Are you gonna be alright?’, the smaller girl with long hair pulled back for once asked him, her outfit similar to the supreme leader’s. Her mask that hid her identity at moments their group would commit their fun activities that the police would call petty crimes was discarded for now as it was just the two of them, since she wanted to walk her boss out of the city in safety. ‘ ‘Course, I can’t die, I’m immortal, duh’, the purple haired boy responded a little nervously, scratching his neck as he eyed the dark alley that he was supposed to enter now. Although he surely was worried, a grin made its way on his face as he faced his subordinate not to worry her. ‘Now go back to the others, I’ll be fine. Don’t come back here unless you hear the sound of me screaming or whatever, ‘cause I gotta do this alone. At least that’s what her facebook page said…’, the boy trailed off, resulting in the smaller girl laughing softly at his expense but also to hide the nerves she definitely felt because of this shady deal. ‘Alright boss. We’re counting on your return’. ‘Of course’, the leader replied simply, deep purple eyes finding his wrist where the small sign was displayed. 

It was almost as if the painting was just a couple of pen strokes funnily placed, but Kokichi Ouma knew better than that, since he had tried to rid himself off the art multiple times before simply by using soap and water, yet it never went away. The leader had grown not only to hate the sign but everything it stood for as well, even if he wasn’t sure why something as silly as a magnifying glass and a dice that had not only the shape but also the pattern of dots wrong edged in his skin would freak him out as much as it did. Kokichi liked freedom and he liked deciding what he wanted to do for himself; hence when he was left behind by parents and any type of good caretaker he had started a group of his own now ironically called D.I.C.E., taking the job as a fairly childish leader for them instead. The boy knew how to think for himself and he knew how to get what he wanted, so he didn’t like the restrainments of being  _ chosen  _ or whatever to be the first to carry the soulmark. Perhaps if he hadn’t been the one to carry it first, he wouldn’t have known at all what was going to happen and everything would have turned out differently, but it hadn’t, since fate doesn’t work that way. Fate had never worked that way, and although it helped Ouma out multiple times, now was when he realised just how much he wished that fate did not exist and his future wasn’t neatly thought out for him by the higher ups. So when there was a chance of this, the boy naturally immediately grasped it. 

On her site it had said to follow the painted white and black tiles that were in the alleyway, so the purple haired boy did. He was fairly good at searching games as a kid, so it wasn’t a hard task in this respect. But the path was dark and the only light that could shine down on him was light of a weak moon, as the woman only made deals during the night; Kokichi was sure this was only because of aesthetic purposes and not because she actually was a threat, even if he still minded to take a pepper spray with him just in case something did go wrong. The only sound he heard were the echoing of his footsteps on the stone beneath his feet and the alarming squeaking at what perhaps was a mouse or some sort of night-bird flying around. He couldn’t say he was that amazed by this, as the young male was accustomed by the night by now, even if it was usually more lively in the big city he lived. 

The blog of the woman that offered her services had spoken of some sort of ritual that would follow and that he needed to bring a sacrifice, although this fact was probably already given and he needn’t worry about it too much once he actually contacted her. It had been a strange conversation and he still felt a little uneasy thinking about it, although he hadn’t acted any different as usual; perhaps that was what went wrong in the communication with the more serious girl, perhaps she wasn’t as fond of the eggplant emoticon as Ouma was.    
The boy finally reached a door as described, painted half white and half black in contrast to the dark red-brownish brick of the other buildings in the small street, a light faintly litting the front of the place and a small sign that was hung up underneath a doorbell, saying ‘ _ Enoshima _ ’. An ominous feeling went through the leader’s body and he shuddered lightly, although it wasn’t visible to anyone that might have seen him as his poker face was quite good. The smell of burning flesh came from inside the building, and although it was worrying, the young woman had already described to him this would probably be the case for certain precautions she had to take to make the whole ritual run smoothly. He was at the right address. 

_ A soulmate mark was quite the precious thing, since only one half of the significant others actually possessed over the emblem. As far as research could tell the carrier of the mark usually was the person that wouldn’t know about their family’s history with soulmates or had the smallest chance of knowing, as some sort of way to be prepared. The mark usually was a hint to whoever was the partner to your mark, however, it wasn’t exactly spelled out for people. Many had tried to find out some sort of algorithm behind it and easy ways to figure out who belonged to who, but none could find one so far. It was almost as if the idea of a fateful love was written in some’s DNA, seeing most of the time children of parents that were bounded by fate as well became ones that carried a mark of their own. It was possibly one of the most important things to the whole ordeal, since without the mark, it was nearly impossible to find out who actually belonged to you and who was praying on a future with someone that was what they called ‘chosen’. The mark could not be damaged by ink or even when one tried to take it from the skin it wasn’t physically possible without resulting into death. The art was born out of a great power of adoration and love that one human couldn’t simply comprehend or grasp, contrasting against the soft skin stronger than any normal tattoo would have.   
_ _   
_ _ That was however how the young woman came to the idea that she had to get rid of the restricted fate. If one as cruel and as unlovable as her were to understand the law behind these marks and what bound them to one’s skin, she could know how to untangle the soulmates from each other and instead bring someone a life of their own. And most frighteningly enough, it worked. She had found a way, and advocated it over the internet, although there weren’t many that took the bait since they wouldn’t believe her when she said it was just for fun and to help the people that were stuck with the stupid thing.  _

The girl had told him not to press the doorbell in their small chat, but instead to knock so she would know it was him she could be expecting once he reached the door. Since the leader only supposed that to be fair, he did as was told, making sure to knock on the wood loud enough for the self proclaimed fashionista to know of his presence. Although he could hear nothing but silence coming from in the building for a moment and he was almost sure that the woman just wasn’t home, the door flew open soon, nearly hitting him in the face as he was only fast enough to step back. The shock wasn’t visible on his face, a calm smile plastered on there as he watched the door opening. Out stepped a taller woman, hair worn in two pigtails to the side of her head longer than he’d ever seen, fastened with small bear-like clips that were the same black and white as her door was, so definitely a thought through choice. A creepy and toothy grin had made its way on her lips, as she ushered the male to come inside. ‘You must be Ouma’, she chirped happily, her voice rather high for what he had guessed before, and a simple nod had to do. ‘Junko Enoshima’, he responded with the quirk of a brow, to which the girl turned to him, touching her cheek. ‘That’s me! Follow me’. 

With quick strides miss Enoshima stepped through the long hall that was just as dimly lit as the alley outside had been, and Kokichi couldn’t help but to let his eyes wander along the long halls with paintings hung neatly and strangely along the way, most of them resembling the woman he was following but some were just a work of strange colors and patterns that both intrigued him but also were quickly found plain ugly. Many doors that he couldn’t enter for now littered the place, and he found himself thinking about where they led when the building hadn’t seemed really big from the outside. ‘Spooky’, he muttered to himself, a small laugh bubbling in his chest, ignoring how the woman looked at him with interest. The space reminded him a bit of buildings he would vandalize with his little group, paint the walls and write on them as he knew annoyed the ones in power around the city.    
At the end of the hall there stood a door that was white in contrast to the black doors he had seen so far, and it piqued Ouma’s interest pretty quickly. ‘In here’, Junko said, nodding towards the door. ‘Ladies first’, the leader retorted, making her chuckle softly, although the sound was foreign and far away from the laughs he had heard before.   
  
The room that Kokichi stepped into was one that reminded him of those cheesy horror movies where old hospital rooms would be used as some sort of torture chambers, and although that fact should have probably been a little worrying, he didn’t mind too much. He knew from the blog that it wouldn’t be a nice ritual but it wasn’t deadly for as far as he could tell, so if he had to suffer through this for just one day that would in his opinion be better than suffer through having a soulmate for the rest of his life, even if he didn’t know them yet. 

‘So, just sit down here’, the light pink haired female told him before pushing him in some sort of chair. ‘About the uh… sacrifice, was it?’, Ouma asked, trying to follow the girl where she went with his gaze as she swiftly moved through the room and got some tools she would need, the smell of burning… burning  _ something  _ getting stronger when she returned with a stone cup that had steam coming from the opening, placing it on a handy side table. ‘Oh, don’t worry about that hun’, Junko hummed from his left. The boy could only faintly see a metal object as his eyes widened a little and he was fairly sure that wasn’t a good sign, before he heard the soft snap and the girl stepped back, holding a lock of his purple hair. ‘Debt is paid’, she responded, dumping some of the hairs in the cup, and Kokichi folded his arms together with a frown. ‘What, you’re gonna clone me?’, he asked, not feeling all too serious about the whole situation as usual. ‘Maybe’, Enoshima answered, turning her back to Ouma and fumbling with the tools that were on the small table in front of her as the leader impatiently waited. 

Suddenly she pushed the cup into his hands, looking at him expectantly as Kokichi inspected the black liquid that was in the stone container. ‘Drink it!’, she pressed, snapping her fingers and startling the boy a little, although he calmed down quickly. ‘...Well, cheers, I guess’, Ouma chuckled awkwardly, the burning smell invading his nostrils and making him want to throw the cup away, although he brought it to his lips instead, the expectant face of the fashionista still on him. The liquid was viscous and thick, staining his lips and possibly his teeth as well. The taste was sickeningly sweet yet burning in his throat, and although he was glad it didn’t taste like he was trying to swallow a lump of meat even if the scent would indicate that, it wasn’t a great sensation either. As soon as the boy was done he placed the cup down, and the girl clapped in her hands. ‘Great! Next step’. 

‘Okay, this is gonna hurt’, she warned the male that was kicking his feet in the seat, still waiting for her to finish. The sight of small needles with red little balls on them as if they were round head pins startled the leader a bit, although he had braced himself for something like this happening before, so he swiftly relaxed. ‘Yeah, fine, get it over with’, Ouma huffed defensively, knowing that he wouldn’t like this. He didn’t. Enoshima smirked a little at him and stepped closer, before opening the coat that Kokichi had been wearing. He looked away from her and at the wall instead, painted dark and on which he supposed dirt wouldn’t be seen easily. He cringed a little as he felt the cold steel intrude his skin, biting his lip as he tried not to show signs of pain towards the girl that seemed to be enjoying this. Only fitting he supposed that they were stabbed near the heart area, in a pattern that resembled a heart as well. The pain was soon gone when she pulled the pins out, gliding a hand over the now blooded area. ‘Close your eyes’, she hissed, and something in her town made the boy comply, shutting the eyes quickly and vast. Warm fingertips moved over his eyelids and he was pretty sure by the wet feeling that his blood was being smeared as some sort of eyeshadow over the skin, making him frown, although he didn’t comment as this was her ritual. 

‘Was that it?’, Ouma asked as the girl stepped back and cleaned him, letting him close his shirt again and pull his hair back as it had covered a part of his face. ‘Nope, last thing. Now you need to rub the spot where your soulmark is, and think about wanting to do anything to get rid of it, no matter what will happen’, she grinned, her slender fingers wrapping around the wrist of the boy. ‘Just say in your head, you want to get rid of this soulmate at whatever cost’, she snickered softly, before letting go of the limb. 

A little dizzy and confused but glad by what happened, Kokichi eventually returned to his homebase where his friends from D.I.C.E. were waiting for him, rubbing the skin happily; now it was no longer stained with a drawing or whatever stupid thing had been on there, it was his own smooth color and he could honestly not have been happier, even if the whole experience had been energy draining. 

‘Boss, there’s someone here to see you’, he heard the timid voice of his taller right hand that looked a little dazed by the fact that someone had found their lair. ‘Oh? Visitors?’, Kokichi asked, his head shooting up energetically even though he was tired. ‘Yeah, some Kizakura from Hope’s Peak, at least that’s what he said’, the man responded softly, stepping to the side to reveal a blonde man wearing some not-fashionable hat that was definitely older than Kokichi was. ‘Oh… this should be interesting’, the leader murmured.    
  


* * *

f a s t f o r w a r d a y e a r

m o n d a y, 08:45 P M

* * *

_ Despite there being some that despised the whole idea of soulmates, there were some that were absolutely devoted to the idea of this type of love. They thought it was wonderful that something could work as strangely as the soulmark did, moving onto the other’s skin as soon as a year of knowing each other had passed, for one of them to know who they belonged to according to fate. It brought a sense of security and the idea that one could be loved by someone no matter what, and some people tended to feel comfortable with that. Shuichi Saihara was one of those people.  _

‘I should probably be going back to my dorm now, Ouma is gonna wonder where I am and I don’t think I should leave him alone in there for too long’, Shuichi excused himself as he lay on the couch of his friend Kaito Momota and his own dorm-roommate Gonta Gokuhara. It was a nice pair and ever since Shuichi came to this school he had immediately started to be friends with the both of them, Kaito maybe a little more since the guy was basically attached to his hip the first weeks here. The guy’s girlfriend, Maki, was also present, even though she didn’t say a lot. ‘Oh come on Shuichi, we have something to celebrate! A year in here and we’re not giving up hope yet’, Momota exclaimed, sitting up from his bed and swiftly going over to his detective friend. The male had gotten the title of ultimate astronaut and although Saihara wasn’t really sure how that worked, he supposed it sounded cooler than being a detective, adding to that that he really was just a apprentice. ‘We  _ have  _ celebrated, it’s going to be past the curfew soon’, the blue haired ultimate explained calmly, setting the hat that he wore on his head down a bit so it fitted his face neatly. 

‘If you really don’t want to leave Ouma’s side, just invite him over next time’, Kaito groaned softly, nudging him with his elbow, and making the detective huff with a small blush. ‘It’s nothing like that. Despite the fact that you two can’t go a second without fighting, remember last time he was left alone in our dorm? He managed to spill that panta of his all over  _ my  _ side of the room, and I won’t be happy to have a repetition of that’, he retorted, his gaze not meeting Momota’s. Even though the astronaut gave him a knowing look, he didn’t push on anything, and finally accepted the fact that the detective wanted to take his leave. 

The dorm rooms at Hope’s Peak weren’t very big, but they fit two beds and enough space for the students to live. They didn’t really need a kitchen as there was a cafeteria were they could eat, but there was still a small fridge so they could keep drinks in there, although those got checked every once in a while to see if the students weren’t secretly keeping behind alcoholic things. Shuichi himself didn’t really use the thing, and usually it was stuffed with the sugary drinks that Kokichi, his roommate, enjoyed. 

They too had met just a year ago, and it had been a strange but therefore memorable meeting. They got told they were to share their dorms with someone from their class, and the purple haired student had immediately called dibs on Shuichi, flustering the boy. When he later asked why the male had done so, his only explanation was that Saihara looked  _ not boring  _ or whatever. Over the year of them rooming together and spending classes together as well, Shuichi had grown quite fond of the ultime supreme leader. Even though the boy was basically everything the detective used to dislike, he couldn’t help but to adore the smaller ultimate; perhaps it was in his nature to see the good in people, but knowing there was truly no malice behind those mischievous purple eyes of Ouma made him unable to dislike the trickster, no matter the pranks he pulled. 

  
Shuichi Saihara knew that he had a soulmate.  His mother had told him that their family was one of the families with soulmarks, where usually the female would carry the mark and the male wouldn’t so far. She had taught him bits about the fact, like how after a year of knowing your soulmate the mark will transfer to your own wrist, and then he had to find out who exactly the art used to belong to. At first Saihara had been very drawn to a female classmates of theirs, Kaede Akamatsu, and he had hoped for her to be his soulmate, but she kindly stated that she saw them as nothing more than friends. It wasn’t unusual for two males to be bounded by fate either, so the detective kept his options open. Although it was a bit of a tricky subject, he somewhat hoped that maybe Ouma was the carrier of his soulmark. And today, he was kind of nervous, since he had known the guy for exactly a year; that meant that if Shuichi’s soulmate was in his class, he would get the mark today. 

The detective returned to his own dorm room, surprised by the fact that there was no Kokichi Ouma to be seen, although he supposed the boy was probably off annoying Rantaro or Kiibo. Somewhat glad for the moment he would have on his own, Shuichi saw it was now nine o’clock, and he decided that he could be lazy today and just get into his pajamas already, to read some crime novel he had laying around. They had a small laptop that served as a sort of television in the room, but movie moments were really preserved for when Kokichi was actually there and the detective would have an excuse to sit close to the smaller male. He knew he was kind of hopeless, but since Kokichi stated his affection towards the bluenette many times before (even if it was meant jokingly), he decided that this was okay. 

It was getting later, and Shuichi was comfortable snuggled in blankets with a book on his lap, but he couldn’t find himself to calm even a little bit. His eyes kept finding his yet blank wrist, wishing to know when the mark would actually show up. He had heard from his dear mother that he would feel the skin prick a little but that the sensation didn’t hurt too bad, and he hoped she was right, as his pain tolerance wasn’t exactly high. However, something he couldn’t have expected started instead, his eyes unable to focus on the words written on the pages of the book he was reading as he felt his head getting a little lighter. 

It started with a strange sensation in his throat, almost as if he had drank something strange and it started to bubble, making his hand reach to his neck and rub it as if to soothe the layer underneath the skin. Shuichi then started to cough softly. The bubbly feeling he felt in his throat was replaced by a burning feeling, and he wasn’t sure how, but it was almost like something was solidifying in his gullet. The detective gasped for air as the Orient Express dropped from his lap and ended up pages open and down on the floor, the bluenette frantically stepping up and pushing the suffocating blankets of himself. The detective rushed to their small bathroom, hunching over the sink and trying to get some water in his system, not sure what he was choking on, but definitely not enjoying it (although that thought was a little strange all together). This didn’t help however, and the detective found himself shaking in panic as he grabbed onto his throat, trying to push the invading force out with more coughs. His eyes widened as he looked at his hand after he coughed up in it. 

There was a strange black colored flock of… something on his hand, almost as if it was a wood peel or something like that. The texture was very strange; it was soft, yet as he squeezed it, it refused to squish together at first, before it basically made a  _ pop  _ sound and exploded into a black liquid that dripped down the bluenette’s hand, frightened eyes staring at the events that were taking place. Shuichi’s gaze met himself in the mirror, and surely he saw the same black color painting his lips. His eyes were wide and dark, and he inspected up closer, almost pushing his nose against the reflecting glass, parting his lips and gasping that came out more as a struggled cough as he saw the same texture was blocking parts of his throat, the taste painfully sweet and burning in his throat, frustrated tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. 

Reaching in and pressing his fingers against the sides of the globby mess that was stuck in his system for some reason, he cringed and cried out helplessly as again the sound popped and a thick, syrupy liquid dribbled into his open throat and down his face. 

He wasn’t sure what to do when it didn’t go away at all, grabbing a big amount of tissues to clean himself up as he felt the nasty liquid slobber down his chin and seeping into his clothes, when it suddenly stopped becoming more, and with a cough everything was finally out, granting the detective to breathe normally again. ‘Oooh  _ Shuuuumai _ !’, he heard the purposely higher pitched voice of Ouma outside of the bathroom door, but he paid not much attention to it as he was trying to calm down from what had just happened. He hadn’t noticed that the supreme leader entered their room at all to begin with, so although he wanted to go out and greet him as usual, Shuichi was left staring at his hazy self in the mirror for a little while longer. 

A kick to the closed bathroom door startled the detective as he jumped a little, glancing at where the sound came from even though he wouldn’t be able to see the culprit. ‘C’mon Shu, don’t hog up in the bathroom and come pay me attention’, the whine of the demanding Kokichi sounded from outside, strangely enough comforting to the bluenette after what had just happened. Reluctantly he shuffled to the door, opening it and being met with the grin of Ouma, although it swiftly changed into a more worried expression before straightening into an unreadable expression again. ‘Wow, you look like shit. What is it this time?’, the purple haired male asked, now staring at his nails in boredom, but Shuichi knew he genuinely wanted to know and did actually care about him, although by now that may have been helpless hopeful thinking. 

The thought had the detective frown a little, biting his lip as he didn’t respond. He had a bad habit of letting any thoughts of hesitation and failure that seeped into his brain take over his mind completely, engulfing in the hopeless and uncertain feeling. Despite acting like he was only in it for the fun, Kokichi knew Saihara well enough to know this fact as well, and his frown deepened as well as he looked at the expression on the detective’s face. ‘Fine, I don’t really care anyway, let’s go watch a movie now! I call dibs on the blankets’, the boy said cheerily, pulling onto Shuichi’s arm. 

Ouma had his own way of cheering Saihara back up, even when he tried to let it come across as if it was just for his own benefit. He pulled Shuichi onto the couch and demanded him to share the blanket as Shuichi silently searched for a movie he knew the purple haired ultimate enjoyed, but the supreme leader complained and picked out something that was more Shuichi’s preferred genre, playing it off as if he was actually feeling like watching some sappy detective series. ‘Jeez you’re cold, get your damn body to start functioning, Saihara’, Ouma grumbled as he wrapped an arm around the blue haired ultimate, claiming to be keeping the blankets in place, and setting his head on the detective’s shoulder, through his scalp feeling the warm blush that formed on Shuichi’s face; that was a good sign, at least. ‘Thanks, Kokichi’, the detective muttered softly to show his gratitude, and although his heart basically smiled as bright as his lips failed to, Kokichi just huffed and shrugged instead. ‘What, you’re boring when you’re sad’. But they both knew that wasn’t his actual reasoning.

* * *

L a t e r t h a t w e e k 

F r i d a y, 11:20 A M 

* * *

The whole week had progressed strangely, and to Shuichi’s dismay, the strange occurrence of whatever goop he had been coughing up didn’t stay a one time thing. At first he wanted to write it off as just his imagination, since he did come up with strange things when he was panicked or when he was very tired, but that theory wouldn’t have made sense when he had slept just fine the day before and wasn’t that busy during the day either.    
It usually happened during the evening when he would be alone in his dorm room, and because of that reason he developed a habit of trying to keep Ouma in the dorm during the evening although the smaller boy often went off to chat with his friend Rantaro, since whenever he was around the strange suffocating on the black liquid didn’t seem to happen as quickly. He didn’t succeed in keeping the supreme leader to himself though, since the boy would make some remark about Shuichi being  _ flirty  _ or whatever and it would shut the embarrassed detective up enough for the purple haired ultimate to slip away. 

The viscous liquid that Shuichi had been choking up for a little while now kept getting worse, resulting into the boy actually fainting from not being able to breathe just a day before. That had been a strange thing for Kokichi to walk in to, and although it required a grand explanation, Saihara managed to get out of it without worrying the leader too much to his knowledge; even if he now had a gash on his shoulder from falling and a bump on his head that he managed to hide with the hat he always wore. The supreme leader had bombarded him with questions and threats for him not to tell any lies about his situation since the purple haired ultimate could tell when he wasn’t telling the truth, although he shut up easily when Shuichi mentioned his secrets that he wouldn’t just share either. Ouma had been kind of sweet for him then, in his own way. Even if it went with a lot of over dramatic whining and sassing, he did make Shuichi eat something and had him in bed early, staying awake in bed and watching over him as he slept (even if he did say that it was to kill him in his sleep, Saihara knew he meant to give him a safe feeling, and it was kind of nice). 

The detective had tried to keep some of the liquid in a container and give it to the ultimate chemist at school, but even when she took a look at it, she couldn’t tell what exactly it consisted of and definitely not how it ended up in his system. It was a big mystery all together, so to say. 

He tried to bring it up in a conversation with Kaito, since that guy he trusted the most out of all his friends to stand behind any decision he were to make. However, when he tried to bring it up, the male had acted fairly suspicious. Shuichi actually knew he too was one of the few people that had a soulmate, as he had paired up with Maki almost as soon as he met her, easily recognizing the love of his life, so he said. It was pretty cute, sure, and Saihara had been happy for him, even if the girl did freak him out sometimes with the way she stared. Momota just thought that if his body came up with it himself it couldn’t be too toxic for him, which was perhaps a good thought, but it also didn’t help him further at all and Shuichi wasn’t sure what to do with the piece of knowledge from his friend. It only confirmed that when the astronaut couldn’t think of anything more creative to say either, the situation was probably pretty helpless. The fact that Saihara had actually fainted because of this phenomenon that randomly happened was horrifying to him, and he truly hoped that it wouldn’t turn out worse than it already had, resulting into a little more damage than fainting on his tiled bathroom floor had brought him.  
  
Ever since this started the detective had a hard time concentrating in class, and at the moment he was ticking his pencil against his table to irritation of most around him as he tried to keep his mind on math problems instead of his life problems. The voice of his teacher thumped through his head but he couldn’t make sense of the words, eyes roaming over the classroom and meeting Kokichi’s deep purple ones, before the bluenette averted his gaze and stared at his table instead. Something was being explained to him and all he could focus on was trying to stay sane, it was honestly a horrible way of dealing with this, but he didn’t know how else to. Whenever he was with Ouma now he tried to keep his mind off of it as well, and the supreme leader was a rather good distraction, but he couldn’t run from his thoughts forever. 

‘Saihara, pay attention to my class or get out’, the teacher snapped at him, and Shuichi jumped up a little in his seat, his heart beat racing as he had been caught not paying attention to the subject at all. ‘S-sorry miss’, the detective cleared his throat softly, ignoring the snicker that came from Miu in the back of the classroom who made some comment about the boy wacking it to their teacher’s dress or whatever; it was too crude for Saihara to really pay attention to. He felt a soft kick against his shin, and his face snapped to the side, seeing Ouma. 

_ You okay? _ , the boy mouthed, his eyes big in concern yet most of his expression masked this fact.    
_ Fine, don’t worry  _ Shuichi mouthed back, leaning his head in his hands as he kept his gaze on the chalkboard that the young woman was now writing strange math problems on. Although the supreme leader responded by bring his fists to his face and dramatically acting like crying, the bluenette shook his head softly and held back a chuckle. Even if he had a ridiculous way of doing it, he cared, and that was enough. It made his heart flutter in his chest.

Soon though, the fluttering in his chest became some sort of problem.   
It was no longer the soft feeling of the student that simply adored Kokichi Ouma, his chest pressing tightly together as he frowned, feeling as though someone was sticking a dozen tiny needles into the flesh and pushing through harshly to pierce the skin. Shuichi gulped, gripping onto his shirt with wide eyes, his heart thumping in his chest as the teacher kept speaking about her subject, not noticing what was going on with the ultimate detective. 

Gripping onto the desk that was in front of him, the blue haired ultimate braced himself as he let out struggled breaths, closing his eyes tightly as he tried to get rid of the pain that was turning up and ruining his chest. He could almost feel like something was dripping down his skin, a warm and thick liquid that only reminded him of blood, which wasn’t a great sign. He frantically eyed the teacher, still, she did not notice his struggling. The pain nagged him for his full attention as it was like someone was just pressing their fingers into the just made injury, resulting in a yelp from the boy. 

‘Saihara!’, the teacher cried, finger pointing angrily at the boy. ‘I don’t know what’s going on with you today, but I will hear not another word from you, or you can go pay the principal a visit’. Shuichi gulped, looking at her with his own big pained eyes and hoping to get some of her sympathy, but too soon her back was once again turned to the classroom. Overwhelmed by the fact that no one would help him and by the pain that made him clutch miserably onto his chest, the detective stood up, his chair falling backwards and making a loud sound as a clash when it touched the floor. A soft silence followed, most eyes on him nervously, but before the teacher could yell anything else at him, the male rushed out of the classroom, throwing the door closed behind him. 

Stumbling through the hall and getting strange looks from the little amount of students that weren’t in class at the moment, Saihara went into the small bathroom stall that was close to their classroom. He checked if the stalls were empty before standing in front of the mirror in front of the sink, and taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what was about to come. He pulled his shirt up a little, and gasped with shaky hands at the sight that revealed itself. Blood was indeed dripping down the left side of his chest, but as he looked at it correctly, the small holes of injuries where it came from were placed like a comical heart over the place were his actual heart would be. Shuddering, the boy placed his fingertips on the sore spots and felt the warm texture on his skin, closing his eye with a cringe and wishing he was just making this all up. 

‘...Dude, that’s not good’, the voice of Kaito Momota that had followed him into the bathroom startled the detective into looking at his best friend, caught in the thing he had been trying to cover up so far. ‘K-Kaito’, Shuichi whimpered softly, his eyes wide and feeling tears pool at the corners of them again. ‘I-I don’t know what’s going on,  _ please’,  _ he continued desperately as he now gripped onto the shirt of the ultimate astronaut, who reassuringly placed a hand on the bluenette’s shoulder. He looked at the detective with sympathy, hesitating on what to tell him, but eventually deciding that he needed to know anyway. 

‘Okay, so I really hoped that I was wrong, but I think I know what’s going on’, Momota started carefully, seeing the boy’s eyes gleam with confusion and maybe even a small hint of betrayal, but he kept quiet and let the taller male speak. ‘I… have only ever seen anything like this being possible if your soulmate made a deal to try and get rid of their mark’, Kaito continued, pitifully placing a hand on his shoulder again and squeezing softly. Shuichi blinked, clear confusion evident on his face. ‘...what? why… why would anyone do that?’, he asked, eyes dark and thoughts even darker. He had waited on the moment to connect with his fate his whole life, he had waited for someone to love him unconditionally and truly no matter how much the male couldn’t believe someone like that would exist; they did, and they gave up? Saihara had supposed that everyone just wanted a true love to feel like they belonged somewhere, even if it was in a non-romantical sense, so why would someone get rid of something as wonderful as that? 

‘I can’t really answer that, but.. there’s something I can show you’, Momota told him, taking out his cellphone and typing in something, waiting as the screen loaded, the glow litting their tired faces. It wasn’t even that late in the day yet and Shuichi could already tell he wasn’t going to enjoy a single part of it. ‘Look’, the phone was pushed into the detective’s hands, and he inspected it carefully. It was landed on some sort of blog. 

_ “In response to the HopeProcess - Fate is Mine of miss Enoshima: _ _   
_ _ I cannot remember exactly what I suffered, but I suffered greatly. Not only during the act of the ritual, but also the aftermath. You have not included enough explanation on what you were about to do, and this should have been stopped long before I got rid of my soulmate.  _ _   
_ _ I came to miss Enoshima when I decided that work was more important than the having of a lover, and this would only get in my way to success. I had enough friends around me and enough fans to care about me, but this was all brutally taken from me the day I decided to trust Junko. Not only did I have to physically endure the pain that was induced to me on that day, I had to endure the pain of losing someone who was dear to me.  _ _   
_ _ I had no idea they were my soulmate, and I don’t think I would have minded as much as I did if I had known. I certainly wouldn’t have done what I did then if I knew it would result in the physically getting rid of my close relation; although I cared about my own fate, I would not have purposely gotten the death of him to be indirectly my fault.  _ _   
_ _ Please be warned before you take this risk. An innocent person will die, which I believe is the whole reason Junko is doing this all together”.  _

‘Where did you find this?’, Shuichi asked after a small moment of silence, his voice coming out quiet and hesitant. ‘I think your safety is more important right now than getting all the answers, Shuichi’, Kaito spoke truthfully, nudging the boy and pulling him away from the bathroom. Neither of them was sure if a cure actually existed and how they would come to one, since the astronaut had looked for one before, and didn’t find anything online that could’ve helped him. He wasn’t sure if it really was a hopeless case, but at least it was a difficult one if anything. 

Deciding that he needed some time to think, Shuichi parted from the other male and returned to his dorm room, face down as he hid behind his hat, not wanting to deal with the stares of people that had been in his class for now. The walk wasn’t that far and on the way he couldn’t help but to think of how he was supposed to excuse himself to their teacher, although perhaps he could just tell her about his situation and hopefully she would understand. Although he himself hadn’t much of an idea what exactly was going on, he would be able to explain at least that what was happening wasn’t good. The fact that this could possibly result in death to the detective was frightening on a high level, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. It had been the first time he himself had ever heard about the fact that one could and would want to get rid of a soulmark, and he didn’t know how to take this news. 

As soon as Shuichi entered his dorm room, he noticed the supreme leader standing in the center of the room and looking at him. ‘What’s going on with you, Shuichi? And don’t try to lie to me, ‘cause I won’t hesitate to send my ten thousand minions after you’, the purple haired ultimate threatened as he stepped closer, and Saihara closed the door behind him. ‘It’s nothing’, he responded, his mind too full to properly communicate as he flopped down to sit on his bed, head in his hands. ‘Yeah, I think that’s bullshit. Try again’, Kokichi snapped, although he sat down next to him with a soft care that the detective hadn’t expected coming from him. ‘You don’t run out of a classroom for  _ nothing,  _ especially the study freak that you are’, he proved his point of the argument, taking the hat from Shuichi’s face and throwing it across the room with the struggling protests of Shuichi. ‘You need to get rid of that stupid thing anyway’, Ouma muttered, grabbing onto the boy’s cheeks and forcing him to look up at the supreme leader. Shuichi blinked, averting his gaze, but he couldn’t escape from the tight grip. He didn’t want to worry the purple haired ultimate too badly and he felt like he’d put too many of his problems on the guy already, so he wasn’t sure what to tell him, even though he knew that lying wouldn’t be a great idea since the guy could easily tell whenever Shuichi wasn’t telling the truth.

‘Fine, I just…’, Shuichi mumbled, sighing softly as he thought of what exactly to say with the sharp glare that the supreme leader was casting upon him. ‘Uh, well, something just hurt, and I didn’t know what to do’, he continued vaguely, not exactly lying but not telling the full story either anyway. Kokichi’s gaze softened and so did his grip, now only gently holding onto the bluenette as he stayed silent for a moment to collect his thoughts. ‘...Is there someone I need to kill?’, he asked, a small and reassuring smile on his face, managing to get a soft chuckle out of Shuichi who shook his head. ‘Uh n-no, let’s not do that’, he muttered in response. 

Although Ouma spend the rest of the day trying to be around Saihara and it was pretty cute considering that the detective could definitely tell he cared about his friends now, the thoughts were not calming down yet, and eventually when they were sitting on the couch and watching some cheesy romance movie that the trickster kept making comments on, the male couldn’t help but to ask, if only to feed his curiosity and ease his mind a bit. ‘This may sound random, but’, Shuichi asked, ‘what do you think of soulmates?’. The movie they had been watching played with the idea of soulmates after all, so he supposed it wasn’t that strange of a question, although it seemed to catch the smaller ultimate off guard. ‘Huh? Oh. I don’t really have an opinion on it’, Kokichi hummed, eyes set straight on the laptop they used as a television. ‘I mean, I guess it kinda sucks that you get bounded by fate to someone instead of being able to pick them out yourself’. Shuichi nodded slowly, even though he didn’t fully agree with that thought, but he could understand where the guy was coming from. ‘...I guess you’re right’. 

‘Why do you ask?’, Kokichi now asked, interest and suspicion on his face as he watched the detective carefully, who looked away from him and sat back on the couch, no longer leaning against the purple haired ultimate. ‘No reason, I was just wondering’, Shuichi lied simply, noticing with the glint in his eyes that the supreme leader caught on to that fact. 

* * *

T h e f o l l o w i n g w e e k 

w e d n e s d a y, 11:15 P M

* * *

  
‘And she’s just gonna leave him behind there?!’, Shuichi cried at the screen indignantly as he snuggled closer against Ouma, being cuddled up in blankets with the male. It was pretty late and the room was dark, the only light coming from the laptop screen where some sappy but sad romance and action movie was playing, something the two ultimates secretly enjoyed watching. ‘I would too if my love interest was that ugly’, Ouma responded, resulting in getting shoved by the detective seeing the actor of that man was one of Shuichi’s favorites. ‘Shuddup, you wish you had that jawline’, the bluenette muttered, being a little tired and therefore more fun to be around according to the supreme leader. Although the trickster wanted to respond, lips parting, they swiftly closed as something went down on the screen, getting the male lead in a very hurtful position. ‘No!’, Shuichi whisper-yelled, grabbing onto Kokichi’s shirt as they watched. Usually the detective was the more emotional one when they watched movies together, and although the supreme leader teased him for this fact, he secretly thought it was pretty cute. This particular evening the detective seemed maybe even more emotionally invested in the film as he had been through enough the past week, so this time Ouma didn’t really make any mean comments towards him for this fact. 

Shuichi sniffled softly when the male on the screen puffed out his last breath and went still, the lady dramatically crying of course and trashing against the people that tried to hold her back. Wanting some sense of comfort from the male next to him, he looked up at Ouma, however, the boy was already staring at him tensely. ‘...What?’, Shuichi asked softly, wiping at his eyes. ‘Your- your tears’, Kokichi stammered very out of character, eyes wide as he watched the male. Shuichi frowned a little and wiped at his eyes, looking at his hands after he did so, seeing a darker liquid stain the hands. ‘That’s probably my eyeliner’, he chuckled, seeing as it was dark, but Kokichi jumped up from his seat. ‘It’s coming out of your eyes Shu, I-I don’t think so’, Kokichi struggled to get out, rushing to the place of the lightswitch and turning it on. 

Shuichi’s breath hitched in his throat as he saw the dark crimson color that stained his skin, the smell of blood filling his nostrils. 

Thick and read tears that the boy knew didn’t belong there rolled down his cheeks as the detective frantically searched around the dorm room for tissues. ‘You need- you need to get Kaito here’, Saihara struggled to get out as he looked through cupboards, but couldn’t find anything. He felt himself freeze up when a hand was wrapped around his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. ‘No, first you’re telling me what the hell is going on’, Kokichi said, far more serious than the bluenette had ever seen him. Although Shuichi knew he was no longer sad from the movie by now, the waterworks didn’t seem to stop as he could feel his shirt getting stained with the crimson tears as well. His eyes were pricking and he wasn’t sure why he didn’t notice that before, feeling a little dizzy as he tried to keep his balance standing up. ‘Ouma’, he repeated, ‘you need to go and get Kaito’. The supreme leader led Shuichi by the hand to sit back down on their couch as he noticed that he was getting fainter by the second, and and he wasn’t sure what to do; usually Kokichi was fairly good at improvising, but this seemed really serious. ‘I’m not doing anything before you start talking’, Ouma threatened, not really wanting to leave the detective without any help, but he found he deserved to know what was going on just as much as Kaito did, seeing he was a pretty close friend to Shuichi as well. 

Shuichi sighed quietly, his thumbs still wiping away the blood so it wouldn’t get in his clothes too bad. ‘Fine, have it your way’, he muttered, frowning a bit as his head hurt more than before. ‘You remember when I asked you about soulmates?’, Shuichi asked, trying his voice from quivering and not succeeding, but the purple haired ultimate only nodded in response. ‘Well, I have one, or should have one, but I’m pretty sure they got rid of their soulmark, which means I might… might...’, he trailed off, blinking as the dark thoughts took over his brain for a moment. ‘Oh’, Kokichi said strangely, tapping his lip as he averted his gaze. ‘...oops’. 

‘ _ Oops? _ ’, Shuichi asked, frowning at him, and the smaller ultimate took a defensive stance, folding his arms together over his chest. ‘I thought you were the ultimate detective, go figure it out yourself’, he grumbled, blinking with long lashes as he watched the detective’s frown change into a strange unreadable expression that Kokichi had mastered for himself, but he hadn’t yet seen on the detective. ‘...you were my soulmate’, Shuichi deduced, his voice awfully calm although it was a little lower than usual. ‘Ding ding ding’, the supreme leader sarcastically replied, rolling his eyes. ‘Jeez you’re slow Shu, I thought you were the ultimate detective, not the ultimate slowpoke’. 

‘How long have you known?’, Shuichi asked, his eyes dark and calm as he sat back on the couch, no longer physically in contact with the supreme leader. ‘Uh, I just figured when you said it. In my defense, I didn’t think you’d die or whatever’, Kokichi waved it off, although from the inside he was panicking far worse than he let on at the moment. ‘...Ouma, what have you done?’, Shuichi whispered quietly, and only now did the supreme leader notice the detective was shaking a little. ‘Look, I’m sure you’ll be fine-’, the purple haired ultimate tried to reassure him, but Shuichi wanted nothing to hear of it. ‘Don’t give me that crap, why in the world would you get rid of a soulmark? What have I done to you, huh?’, Shuichi asked, a bit more snappy as he got up from his seat. ‘Oh, well  _ I’m  _ sorry, mister detective. I couldn’t have known you would end up to be my soulmate’, Kokichi snapped back, not taking anyone talking down on him, no matter what reason it was for. 

Shuichi was tired, and he was angry, mostly at himself for the fact that he agreed with the leader since he really couldn’t have known anything about that, since this Enoshima lady that had taken care of everything for the ritual or whatever apparently didn’t inform her clients about what would happen to the other innocent person. Ouma saw his change in posture and he calmed down himself as well, turning to Shuichi fully again. ‘Look, I’ll just contact her and ask her how to undo it, alright?’, he offered, taking his phone out and looking through his chats where the one with the girl had been. ‘Okay’, Shuichi mumbled softly, although even if he did get his soulmark back, it wouldn’t be like the male would actually like the idea of being bounded by fate any more than he used to, and the detective wasn’t sure how to feel about that, since he himself did care a lot about love and how it worked. ‘She’s typing’, the purple haired male informed him, waiting impatiently for the girl to respond and spamming her with exclamation marks to get his point across. 

Shuichi could see from the blue chat bubble that something had been a response, but Ouma didn’t say anything. He was silent, staring at the radiant screen, hand gripping his phone tighter than usual. ‘What? What did it say?’, Shuichi asked, shuffling closer to the male and looking over his shoulder to check. 

**_You:_ ** _ uhm how 2 undo this soulmark removal shit plz help _

**_You:_ ** _ its n emergency ! ! ! !  _

**_You:_ ** _!!!! >:(  _

**_You:_ ** _ you type like my grandma _

**_You:_ ** _ shes dead lmao  _

**_You:_ ** _ e m e r g e n c y  _

**_You:_ ** _!!!!!!!!!!!!! _

**_Shady Enoshima woman:_ ** _ Heyyyyy Ouma!!!!!! there is no way to undo the removal, but you prolly don’t actually need it anyway since you were so certain of ridding yourself from the soulmate when you got here! =D it works with complicated science and all that jazz, you know, how the power of your resentment of being bounded basically resembled loathing to love??? and that’s how it’s done, someone with no love don’t deserve it either I suppose ;( like noooottt fair but it’s not my problem ig!. Good luck with the soulmate thing, it’s totally fair to blame yourself for his or her death since you were the one that caused it when coming to me =DDD there’s no way to undo of the ridding, don’t contact me again. _

‘....So, that’s it then’, Shuichi muttered as he eyed the phone screen, not able to take his eyes away from it even though he would rather see anything else than the cruel text. ‘No, there’s gotta be something we can do. I’m the supreme leader of evil for fuck sake, there’s technically nothing I  _ can’t  _ do’, the purple haired ultimate complained, fingertips softly touching Shuichi’s cheeks were the fountain of red wasn’t slowing down. ‘It’s fine, Ouma’, Saihara calmly mumbled, a light pressure to his head, not sure what that was and not sure either if he wanted to know, as he felt faint and dizzy. ‘It’s not fine, don’t be emo’, the boy snapped, taking Shuichi’s face in his hands, and watching his expression fade. A strange sense of calmth ran over the detective’s body, and he felt as if he was falling while staying still, his eyes closing on their own will. ‘No, no, Shuichi, what are you doing’, Kokichi asked, shaking the boy softly as he wanted him to do anything but keep those eyes closed, although it was to no use. ‘Shuichi, this isn’t funny’, his voice quivered as he spoke, and his fingers caressed the skin of the bluenette’s cheeks, who was only responding with a soft hum, his head leaning on the hold of the male. ‘No, Shu, come on Shuichi, you can do better than this’, Ouma shook him again, his eyes wide as panic overtook him when the detective wouldn’t open his eyes. ‘Hey, hey, you were gonna be fine, Shuichi!’, Kokichi basically shouted at him, pinching the skin under his fingers as he just wanted the boy to respond, even if it was a simple blinking of his eyes.   
  
There was no response from the detective, and Ouma could feel himself losing the composure he had trained so hard to keep at all times, genuine tears of frustration he wasn’t aware he could actually produce instead of those fake crocodile ones he used to produce pooling at the corners of his eyes. ‘Shuichi…’, he mumbled quietly, feeling the cold skin that radiated no heat from the boy, as he leaned in close and pressed his forehead against the other male’s, eyes shut tightly in contrast to the detective’s peacefully shut ones. ‘I’m sorry’, Kokichi whispered to him, knowing his salty tears were intertwining with the thick liquid that was stuck on the bluenette’s face. Taking a shaky breath, the supreme leader leant the lower half of his face closer, lips pressing against the soft ones that belonged to Saihara, and a salty and irony taste invading his taste buds, although the kiss wasn’t reciprocated in any way. 

He placed his hand on the chest of the male as he sat back up, looking down at the pale detective, his usual glow that the supreme leader could see coming from the boy now basically gone. He really couldn’t have known this was going to happen; if he knew he wouldn’t have been selfish enough to continue only caring about himself and get rid of the stupid mark anyway. He had gotten no time to say goodbye to him, no time to prepare himself for what was about to come, and no time to realise that Shuichi was the one he had been looking for all along, even if he subconsciously always already guessed so, since he’d seldom been intrigued by anyone as much as he had been by Saihara. There was something about the male that made him very lovable, even if he always assumed the worst and couldn’t speak a good word about himself, he was emotional in a way that Kokichi hadn’t met another guy like and he wasn’t even the littlest bit good at lying, which was basically the full opposite of the supreme leader himself. He never told him about this fascination, and even though Kokichi was fairly sure whole Hope’s Peak knew about this, the detective was rather oblivious when it came to someone’s feelings towards him. He had felt the most comfortable being honest towards Shuichi, and he had felt the most proud whenever he could tell one of his lies, which didn’t happen often as usually the purple haired ultimate would get grumpy whenever someone caught on. It had been a little scary, sure, but it had been refreshing nonetheless. And now it was gone. Now, as he gripped the detective’s shirt, there would be no heartbeat to enjoy, no snuggling from the taller male that tried to subtly show his affection. No more. 

Still, he didn’t miss the small movement underneath his hand palms, one that made his eyes widen in hope. 

* * *

S o m e t i m e l a t e r 

T i m e u n k n o w n 

* * *

Shuichi felt like he was floating, but it wasn’t in a pleasant way, as the tight feeling in his stomach and the harsh pressing on his mind got worse every second that went by, when suddenly, it stopped all together. 

Faintly was the detective aware of the soft ticking sound of a clock and a warm… something wrapped around him, the scent of coffee entering his nostrils and waking him a little from his slumbery feel. Someone was running a hand through his hair, stimulating the scalp and making the bluenette feel at peace, as if he could lay here forever if he had to. Slowly his senses came back to him, and carefully, his eyes fluttered open. The room he was in was only dimly lit by sunlight that shone through the light curtains that were hung in front of the windows, and he could immediately tell he was in his dorm room, seeing the soft creme color of the walls and a picture of him, Kaito and Kaede hung near a drawer. Purple hair peaked from his chest, and the fingers that ran through his hair were attached to the arm that was Kokichi Ouma’s. Vaguely aware of his situation, Shuichi hummed quietly, enjoying how his arm was already comfortably wrapped around the supreme leader so he wouldn’t need to move too much. 

Kokichi immediately noticed the ultimate stir a little, and an excitement ran through his body by the knowledge that he had been right. ‘Shu! You’re okay!’, he cheered, laughing softly at the scrunching up of the detective’s nose when that had been rather loud for his peaceful mood. ‘I’m… not dead’, the bluenette stated the obvious, memories of what had happened before filling his mind, and his eyes finally fully opening to look at the supreme leader. ‘Nah, not yet. If you ever scare me like that again, I am killing you’, Ouma warned him, which the detective supposed was kind of fair. 

As the purple haired ultimate’s hand still ran through his hair pleasantly, Shuichi now noticed something, and gripped onto the smaller guy’s wrist, seeing a mark he had not yet seen before placed in the center, one of a magnifying glass and some funky looking dice. ‘Yeah, it’s back. I think I figured out how to undo the ritual’, he smiled a little, looking like he had worried far too much the last couple of days to be lying and tricking around like he usually was. It must have been logical, that a ritual to show how much he loathed the idea of a soulmate would be undone by showing love for the person, although Kokichi was sure it was pure luck he figured it out. 

_ After all, love was stronger than the hate of humans. People loved the idea of the higher powers being able to make something as wonderful as love, even if it was a feeling they couldn’t quite grasp and could result into many different kinds of hurting. Movies were based on it, songs were based on it, books were based on it… lives were based on it. The biggest achievement of mankind could have been love, and possibly half the earth would agree with that statement. If hope couldn’t help one in certain situations, there was a big chance that the warmth of a close relationship could redeem their hopeless state anyway, and that is something Junko Enoshima had not counted on. A warm, fuzzy feeling to get rid of whatever despair she tried to induce from the sidelines.  _

Still with a tired mind, Shuichi grabbed onto Kokichi’s shirt and lazily pulled him down a bit, kissing his cheek. ‘Don’t try to get rid of me again’, he mumbled, his eyes fluttering shut again although the scent of coffee was still keeping him conscious. 

‘Wouldn’t dream of it, Saihara’, Kokichi responded in all honesty, pressing a kiss into his hair. And perhaps Shuichi got what he had always wanted and dreamt of after all.    



End file.
